Tennessee fans honor Bobby Dodd as the All-American quarterback of teams that were a combined 27-1-2 in his three seasons with the Volunteers. Linda Lay recalls a father who taught her how to fish and to walk on her hands.
Georgia Tech followers revere Dodd as the architect of the Yellow Jackets’ sustained run as a college football powerhouse. Bobby Dodd Jr. recalls a tennis doubles partner, punting instructor and a man he still calls “Daddy.”
Dodd, one of only three men in the College Football Hall of Fame inducted as both a player and a coach, will be honored at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game between Dodd’s two schools Monday night at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. However, the recollections of football greatness, both on the field as a Volunteer and on the sideline with Tech, might not compare with those held by Alice and Bobby Dodd’s two children.
Dodd died in 1988, but his sweet hold on his children continues.
The man whom Tech players loved and feared was a “better father than a football coach,” Dodd Jr. said.
Said Lay, “He was really a good daddy.”
Lay’s recollections of her father are pure. Now living in Smyrna with her husband John, Lay remembers a father who taught his two children to fish and shoot. He brought home a film projector from Tech – presumably one he used to dissect Yellow Jackets opponents – for screenings of “Felix the Cat.” He showed her how to do headstands and walk on her hands.
He also imparted his Christian faith, one that has shaped his daughter’s life. Lay, 79, was a bible major at Emory and in her early 20’s taught mentally challenged children at a Christian mission in Cabbagetown. She actually wanted to go into international missions, but she said her father talked her out of it, perhaps reluctant to see his only daughter go far from home.
Beyond raising her children – she and her first husband, the late Joe Thompson, had three girls and a boy – a significant part of her life was leading Bible studies and teaching Sunday school classes.
“It’s my gift,” Lay said. “It’s something God did, not me.”
Lay and her father also connected through dancing. Bobby Dodd loved to dance with Alice Dodd at the posh Capital City Club and sometimes took Linda onto the floor. Her love for dancing led to her second marriage after her divorce from Thompson, a former player for Dodd. She met John Lay while square dancing. They went five nights a week for a long time, Linda said, circling left and passing through.
“You can’t tell dirty stories, you can’t cuss,” Lay said of square dancing. “It’s just good, wholesome, clean exercise.”
Lay’s memories speak of a man who lived what he preached. His three rules to his team were to go to church (or temple), go to class and do not drink, carouse or break curfew.
Lay has three daughters, Deannie Dodd and twin sister Kelly Thompson and Lee Cork, who live in metro Atlanta and a son, Joe Thompson, in Florida. Lay has seven grandchildren, a garden of flowers, a dog, a cat and 17 chickens.
“Nobody’s in jail, nobody’s in the hospital,” Lay said. “I think we’re doing pretty good.”
Bobby Dodd Jr., 75, lives in Milledgeville, having moved from Atlanta about a year ago. His memories are similarly fond. Like his father, Dodd Jr., known to family and friends as Brother, was a natural athlete. He played defensive back at Florida under former Dodd assistant Ray Graves, as father and son had agreed it would be wiser if he did not play at Tech.
The younger Dodd recalled how his father took a hands-off role with his football, not wanting to overstep his bounds with his coaches. He did, though, help him with his punting, a skill that Dodd was legendary for even after he became a coach.
And though his father died 29 years ago at the age of 79, the love and loyalty that Bobby Jr. felt and feels to him is tangible even over the phone.
Asked if he still missed him, Dodd responded, “Oh, God, yeah. Every day. I had to reorganize my life when Daddy passed away. We did so many things together. The best years of my life.”
Said Alice Dodd, Dodd Jr.’s daughter, “They really were best friends. I think it’s still hard for my dad to not have Pop around.”
Dodd is retired after a professional career in which he first worked as an attorney and then switched tracks in 1988 and made his passion for collecting 18th century furniture his vocation, opening Bobby Dodd Antiques in Atlanta. With his then-wife Margie, Dodd had a successful business by his counting. Margie’s troublesome back necessitated their getting out of the business in 2008, just before the antique market began to collapse. It was perhaps another instance of the famed Dodd luck that often favored the Jackets.
With Margie, from whom he is amicably divorced, Dodd has two daughters. Renee Dodd lives in Milledgeville, is married with one child, and Alice Dodd, named for her grandmother, resides in Los Angeles and is married with two children.
To Alice Dodd, “Pop” was a loving and indulgent grandfather who stashed toys in his closet, told stories about fishing trips and read to his grandchildren on his big bed.
“He was so playful,” Alice Dodd said. “He wanted to do things with us all the time.”
Until recently, the two Dodd children continued to attend games together at the stadium that bears their father’s name, but Bobby’s health complications made it difficult for him to attend.
For many fans of Tech – and Tennessee – time has rendered Dodd not much more than a hallowed name. Where Lay was once self-conscious about her father’s prominence, “now it’s always a surprise when people remember him.”
But he will be celebrated Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for his football legend. Lay will be there, as will many of Alice and Bobby Dodd’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They will themselves be a testament to the success of the more private life of a legendary coach and his wife.
Said Lay, “They were really, really good parents.”
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